The three paragraphs which follow are from a sketch of Rasmus B. Anderson written by C.W. Butterfield in 1879 for the History and Biographical Annals of the University of Wisconsin:
In June, 1875, Rasmus B. Anderson, A.M., was elected professor of Scandinavian languages in the University of Wisconsin. He was born the twelfth of January, 1846, in Albion, Dane county, Wisconsin, of Norwegian parents,--his father having been, in 1835, the leader of the first large company of emigrants that came from Norway to the United States,--arriving in Wisconsin in September, 1841. The son received such common school instruction as the pioneer settlement afforded. At the age of fourteen, he left home, leading a somewhat unsettled life for the next two years. He then entered an Iowa college, where he studied over three years, at the expiration of which time he returned to Wisconsin and, in June, 1866, was elected professor of Greek and modern languages, in Albion academy, in his native county. This position he held for nearly three years, drawing into the institution a large number of Scandinavian pupils.
Prof. Anderson then entered as student the post-graduate course in the University of Wisconsin, where he remained during the spring term of 1869. In the summer thereafter, he was appointed instructor in langugages in that institution, continuing in the position until the summer of 1875, when as before stated, he was called to the chair of Scandinavian languages,--the first native-born citizen of Wisconsin to be honored with a full professorship in the institution....He was appointed librarian of the University in 1877....He has established, in the institution, a Scandinavian Mimer's Library, the best one of the kind in the United States. It contains over one thousand volumes. In the founding of this library, he received much assistance from Ole Bull, the world-renowned violinist, who on the seventeenth of May, 1872, gave a concert in Madison, Wisconsin, in aid of the enterprise.
Prof. Anderson is, for his age, one of the most prolific writers of the country. As a contributor to the periodical press and as an author of books for general reading, no other citizen of Wisconsin has gained so extended a reputation. He early began to feel an especial interest in Norse literature....Since then, he has contributed extensively to newspapers and magazines published in the Norwegian language, in the United States and Norway.
Butterfield goes on to describe Anderson's English-language articles, books and pamphlets in Norwegian and English, notable lectures and translations, Anderson's idea of erecting a monument to Leif Ericson, and his continued relationship with Ole Bull. He refers to him as “the father of Norse literature in America.”
Anderson also served as minister to Denmark from 1885 to 1889. He was instrumental in bringing to the U.S. on tour or as permanent residents many Scandinavians prominent in the world of music, literature, religion, and science. From 1898 to 1922, he edited the Norwegian language weekly Amerika; and in 1895 published his First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, a history of the movement up to 1840, embodying numerous narratives by the immigrants themselves. He also engaged for brief periods in business enterprises, including the sale of life insurance, the American agency for a Norwegian cod liver oil, and the development of a rubber plantation in Mexico.
